This blog is affiliated with a course at the School of Journalism & Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I'll try to use it to share relevant news and information with the class, and anyone else who's interested.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

State of the News Media 2014 - Pew's annual report

The Pew Research Journalism Project has just released its annual State of the (US) News Media report for 2014. It's a big report with a lot of information, conclusions, and recommendations.

The report suggests that 2013 (and the early part of 2014) has seen the continuing transformation of the U.S. marketplace for news - on both the supply and demand side. It's seen an explosion in digital news outlets, "bringing technological knowhow and new money and luring top talent." It's seen the development of new and alternative revenue sources, the expansion of news into social media channels. As a result, the way people seek and consume news is changing; the report suggests that "the level of new activity this past year is creating a perception that
something important, perhaps even game-changing, is going on."

The reports overview identifies six major trends:

The expansion of digital news outlets is creating job opportunities, particularly in the form of international reporting.

The new money and digital outlets "may be more about fostering new ways of reporting and reaching audience" than developing sustainable revenue streams.

Developments in social and mobile are changing the dynamics of news production and consumption.

The new digital forms are fostering "new ways of storytelling," but bring both promise and challenge.

Local TV underwent massive change in ownership structures in 2013, with greater use of "shared content" in local newscasts.

News outlets are just beginning to recognize the shifting demographics of U.S. audiences, primarily in the expansion of Spanish-language content and outlets.

As I regularly do when these reports come out, I hope to do more focused posts on the various areas and topics covered by the report. In a change for this year, Pew is publishing the full report in sections rather than as a single document In the meantime, I'll post links to the report below.